Morning journal and courier., 1887-07-15
Indian Kings.

San Francisco Chronicle CorreSpondencel
 The Maharajah of Gwalior is undoubted-
 ly the most dangerous of these sovereign
 allies. He is man of military instincts
 and has an army, it is said, that could in
 an emergency show a roster of three hun
 dred thousand men. After the Franco
 PIussian war his royal highness reorgan-
 ized his army upon the. German: system,
 completely discarding that of the French,
 which had heretofore been his model, and
 so far did he carry his contempt that he
 deprived some half breed French officers of
 the positions they held in his service on
 the ground that nation which met with
 such terrible defeat in so short a space
 of time could not produce good soldiers.
 With the exception of Gwalior and the
 late Maharajah of Jaypore there was not a
 Maharajah or Nawab in India whose life is
 not given up to dissoluteness and debauch-
 cry, who does not oppress his people and exact from them the utmost farthing in or der to gratify his taste for sensual pleas ure. The late Maharajah of Jaypore was, like every other Indian ruler, a terrible
 despot. But his despotism had vein of
 grim humor and originality. He always
 selected thieves for high office, whom, when
 he retired, he cast into prison, made them
 disgorge to him their plunder, while all
 his grateful subjects would cry, "Just is
 the Maharajah of Jayporel" The early
 life of native king is not perhaps the very best school in the world to foster the noble qualities that may be inherent in a mans character. The zenana is 8 hotb bed of intrigue. It is the part of the palace which is set aside for women, and as there are few hundred of these royal wives, each of them perhaps with one or more sons, and each of them desperately anxious for his welfare, there is no doubt that the heir apparent runs more risk of being strangled or accidentally sat upon when cooiDg in his cradle than chill dren of meaner origin. When he grows into manhood his father, whose regular course of immoralities makes him a debilitated crea- ture when other men of his age are just en- tering into the enjoyment of life, is jealous of him and often as not tries to get rid of
 his eldest born by murder, and as often as not succeeds, for there is hardly throne oc-
 cupied by the original heir-apparent. It has been my good fortune to have seen several of these gentlemen, both in the splendor of durbar and in private. In public they are imposing. Their gorgeous dress, their dia- monds and their precious stones heaped in the most negligent profusion upon their per sons, make them most striking and impress sive figures. Diamonds stud their sword hilts; they wear diamond waistwands, dia- mond necklaces, diamond sprinkled shoes. Indeed, an Indian king in his full regalia is the king of the childish imagination. But divest an Indian king of his ornamentation and seek him in the privacy of his own
 apartments and you will find a meagre man
 with little white cloth about his Joins, lib
 orally smeared with grease, and obsequiously
 waited upon by women whose beaueiful but scantily draped figures are for grace of mo- tion unequalled in the world. Singular as it
 may appear that women whose whole life is
 but an immoral slavery should exercise so powerful an influence over these men, it is from the harem that emanates most of the mischief done in India. Squatted upon a pile of luxurious carpets, with his long kukah tube in his mouth, much bejewelled and diamond crusted, with women playing
 with his hair or tickling his royal feet, serving him with sweet sherbets and singing to him lasciyious songs. accompanied with the dance, surrounded with gossip and fattery: this scion of former powerful rulers passes the noon-day
 heats in the underground apartments.